Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1887-03-17

I
For long time she sat and thought
Presently she jumped up with laugh.
! Jimmie was. as usual. bestowing his at
tention upon his enemies, 1.-The stingy
geese" All his spare time was spent
in fleeing from or pursuing them
Jimmie" Lalage-Jane said. persua-
sively, don't you want to help me cut
wood to sell to the boats, like father
did last spring?'
Alright" Jimmie SAID. placidly.
Elf ven gimme the Ratchet can
hatchet real good
| Poor Lalage-Jane! AT last, however,
this difficulty was tided over. and Jim
| ME was pacified with the carving knife.
surreptitiously obtained. The next
thing was to escape mammy's vigil
ance. This done, Lalage-Jane walked
through the wood which skirted the
cleared land and examined the trees
with the critical eye of II woodsman.
1.-The beeches an magnohas are a lit
tie big, she said, gravely; We'll cut
some pine"
They chose young sapling, and on
one side Lalage-Jane chopped and on
the other Jimmie grayely sawed his
knife to and fro.
..Drefful tough!'' he said, at last
'.Now yo' lem'me Ratchet some"
Lalage-Jane looked at the pile of dim
inutive chips around her and sighed: -
Then let's try bay-ball," she said.
| The wild cucumber trees were easy
to cut, and soon they had little pile of
! logs-about two feet long and an inch
| -. A
| that he was tired and was going home.
"Unless yo' tell ME a story out O.
The Aravian Nights"
>'.His obedient slave chopped and mar
rated, though she was tired, too, until
Jimmie interrupted her with shout:
Here we are, Jared! This way!
Are yo' coming to play with usp"
A tall, athletic man was approaching
them through the underground. His
| color and his filed teeth told that he
was an Ashantee, and his face was Curl
ously tattooed. On each temple, in
direct line with his eyebrows, were two
small blue arrows, a sign that the royal
blood of his tribe flowed through his
veins. The children often wondered to
each other what these curious scars
were, but never to him, for once jim
mie had asked him about them, and in
his anger he had almost struck the
child. 1t was the first and only time
they ever saw him angry. The strong
est passion in this mans breast was a
desire not to speak of the life be had
been taken from when a boy of ten.
"Yo's wanted t. de house, missy"
he said. Then he shook his head
gravely. '' Young ladies hadn't
ought'er chop wood. If yo' want a
dawlhouse--''
A dollhouse! Lalage-Jane's eyes
widened with protest.
."'Tisn't that at all, Jared! It's
wood. Wood to sell to tn boats, and
tn moneys for mother"
He did not laugh. Years afterward
Lalage-Jane remembered that CRATE
fully. He pulled her castle down, but
he did it with gentle touch which
helped her to bear the bitter disap-
pointment.
The strange. gentleman had come
again one day, and was just leaving
when Lalage-Jane heard him say:
''There is no compromise possible.
Il
have to let the law take its course
When he was gone, even nanny
cried, and Mrs. Garrison began her old
lamentations: ''If Richard would only
come homer
But no one had ever heard from him
the mails were so uncertain, and in
those days there were no telegr ans.
The next day boat stopped at the
Garrison landing, and Lalage-Jane saw
figure after figure pass through the
plantation gate and up the staging.
'.These are our people!" she said,
breathlessly. "Where are they goin',
mammyP Who's taken emp
ITO the city," nanny said, with a
sob in her old cracked voice. "Taint
none of Missus' doin's. De gen ilman
say-ed twas a Judgment took en-
They brought Jared, at his earnest
entreaty, to tell the children goodbye,
and he knelt and kissed them in tear
less silence.
'Come"-the marshal said, touching
the shoulder of the kneeling man.
Come. we must be goin'."
You shan't have him. Lalage-Jane
cried, with storm of tears. Hes
my Jared! I'll tell father bout yo'
the minute he comes homer
cit amt me, miss,'' the man said.
uncomfortably. Jared rose and obeyed
in the same silence. He stumbled once
or twice as he walked, but he never
looked back. The last sound of his
old life which followed him was Lalage-
James voice crying his name.
Then a dreamy period. Seven long
days of sunshine that seemed to turn the
earth to a cloud of dust. One after
noon the hot silence was broken by the